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John Grammaticus
John Grammaticus was a human operative of the mysterious xenos organisation known as the Cabal, and had been genetically altered by them to become what they referred to as a "Perpetual", a being who was capable of reincarnation and therefore was effectively immortal, much like the Emperor of Mankind. Also like the Emperor, Grammaticus was a natural psyker whose main psychic power allowed him to act as a powerful logokine, a psyker who is able to understand any language, no matter its form or origin, and unleash the innate power of words. History Origins Grammaticus was born on Terra, at the close of the 29th Millennium, in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. He had served as a line officer in the Caucasian Levvies, a Unification Wars-era military force that had allied with the Emperor during that great conflict. During a victory ceremony after the Imperial forces defeated the Panpacific Empire, he met the Emperor, who recognised that Grammaticus was a man somewhat like him, and who said that they should have a discussion about the paths open to men with their particular "talents." This second meeting never transpired, however, as Grammaticus apparently died when he was hit by a groundcar at Anatol Hive shortly after. He was reanimated by the Eldar Autarch Slau Dha, an agent of the Cabal, who offered him immortality as a Perpetual with the ability to reincarnate himself in exchange for his service, a deal to which Grammaticus agreed. The Cabal Grammaticus was eventually shown the Acuity, the Cabal's deep, psychic vision of the future of the galaxy and came to share this "long view" of the universe. Although fond of humanity, and wishing to help in fending off the growing threat of Chaos, he was appalled by what he saw as the Emperor's "bloodthirsty" nature, whose Great Crusade had unleashed the terrifying killing machines that were the Space Marine Legions upon the galaxy. Grammaticus proved to be a very successful long-term agent of the Cabal, which was very rare for the Cabal's few human agents. At over a thousand standard years old, and shortly before the outbreak of the Horus Heresy in the early 31st Millennium. he was asked, as one of the Cabal's few remaining human agents, to convince the Primarch of the Alpha Legion, Alpharius Omegon, to meet with the Cabal, who wanted to recruit the Legion in their war against Chaos -- a matter of some urgency due to the imminent corruption of Horus by the Dark Gods at the Temple of the Serpent Lodge on Davin. To this end, Grammaticus infiltrated the Geno Five-Two Chiliad, an Imperial Army regiment serving in the 670th Expeditionary Fleet, under the guise of intelligence officer Konig Heniker. Grammaticus also borrowed identities from other dead Imperial Army officers as needed in order to avert suspicion. The Alpha Legion Mission Grammaticus finally succeeded in arranging a meeting between the manipulative Alpharius and the Cabal. However, Alpharius had used a "honey trap", the beautiful Rukhsana Saiid, an Uxor (officer of the command staff) of the Geno Five-Two Chiliad, to manipulate Grammaticus in order to gain the upper hand in his dealings with the Cabal and deal with the enigmatic xenos from a position of strength. After following Grammaticus' advice to abandon the field on the rebellious world of Nurth, which was shortly after consumed by a Black Cube, an ancient Chaotic weapon of planetary destruction created eons before by the first intelligent races of the galaxy. Alpharius then brought his Expeditionary Fleet to the world of 42 Hydra Tertius, known to the Cabal as "Eolith", to meet with Grammaticus' masters. On Eolith, Alpharius and his twin Omegon saw the portion of the Acuity concerning the Horus Heresy that Grammaticus had already been made privy to: If Horus was allowed to win the Heresy, the fragment of nobility in his soul would eventually lead to extinction for the human race through the outbreak of a bloody civil war between the victorious Forces of Chaos would wipe out Mankind in only two to three generations. However, the destruction of the human race would also have the effect of wiping out the Dark Gods as well, as their own existence was heavily invested in the darker psychic emanations of humanity. In this way, Mankind's extinction would preserve the galaxy and bring an end to the threat posed by Chaos to all life. But if the Emperor was successful and defeated Horus, technological and cultural stagnation would consume the Imperium. Unable to progress, within ten to twenty thousand Terran years, the Forces of Chaos would ultimately consume the entire galaxy. Faced with this choice, Alpharius Omegon decided to take the path that the Emperor himself would have chosen -- to join the side of Chaos and aid Horus' victory in the hope of destroying Chaos once and for all. Having fulfilled his mission, Grammaticus discovered that Rukhsana Saiid was a secret human operative of the Alpha Legion and had only pretended to love him to aid her masters in the XX Legion. With his mission successful, but emotionally distraught after his love had proven to be a lie and he believed that he had been responsible for setting in motion the events that woudl render humanity extinct one way or the other, Grammaticus walked out of an airlock on a Cabal spacecraft without a spacesuit, hoping to end his immortality once and for all. Unfortunately, Grammaticus discovered that he truly was Perpetual. Oll Persson Approximately two years later, after the Horus Heresy had begun in earnest, Grammaticus was tasked by the Cabal with re-activating Oll Persson, another human Cabal agent and his old friend who was also a Perpetual -- though Persson's immortality was the result of a true congenital genetic mutation rather than the product of the Cabal's genetic tampering. Grammaticus psychically contacted Persson, who had retired to the Agri-world of Calth in the Realm of Ultramar, just before the Word Bearers legion unleashed the infamous Calth Atrocity. Persson eventually heeded the call and left Calth, to meet with Grammaticus and learn what new designs the Cabal sought to bring to fruition. Sources * Legion (Novel) by Dan Abnett * Know No Fear (Novel) by Dan Abnett Notes * Grammaticus comes from the Greek, meaning "scribe", or someone "learned in language(s)" * Oll Persson the obvious wordplay denotes the fact that Persson was at least as old as Grammaticus * Alpharius Omegon the first and last letters of the Ancient Greek alphabet, also representing Beginning and End. The Alpha Legion (the youngest) was also the "omega" legion, the last to be formed. Category:J Category:G Category:Imperial Characters Category:History